Product Description

Damien March hasn't thought of his eccentric uncle, Patrick, for almost twenty years, so he is shocked to learn that he has inherited his ramshackle house on Ionia, an isolated island off the coast of Cape Cod. But his new future means moving circuitously into his family's past; rummaging through his uncle's possessions, he finds letters and writings that provide scattered clues to Patrick's solitary life. And when he discovers a fragment of an unpublished novel, The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes, which seems to hold a sinister meaning, the stakes in the chase become dramatically higher. Perceptively written with an engaging wit.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #388278 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'An engaging mystery and an illuminating story about family secrets and identity . the author's deft descriptions of an angular childhood spiked with the soft humour of hindsight remain in the mind' THE TIMES '[A] smartly written, atmospheric novel' INDEPENDENT 'Theroux has written a clever and engaging novel which, after lulling the reader into a false sense of comfort, takes great delight in turning the world upside down. An absorbing read' BIG ISSUE

About the Author
Acclaimed writer Marcel Theroux is now one of the faces of the new BBC4 television channel, as well as being the son of Paul Theroux and the brother of Louis.

Customer Reviews

Well-written and enjoyable, but ultimately unsatisfying.
Clearly Marcel Theroux is a talent, but one leaves this book feeling he has not done himself justice on this occasion. 'Paperchase' is easy to read, with many likeable characters and some excellent descriptions of the various locales they inhabit; most notably the island of Ionia. Theroux's style is humorous, but at the same time he shows a sensitive understanding of human nature. From the outset, the reader is drawn in to the worlds of both Damien and Patrick March, expecting some dramatic revelations. For this reader, the ending was too esoteric, and I was left feeling somewhat deflated.

Quirky and mysterious
Damien March is not that impressed with his lot at the BBC when the sudden death of his uncle has the capacity to chnage his life. Damien inherits his uncle's house on an island off the Massachussetts coast but finds that rather than a place to begin again, he has inherited a house loaded with the past. His isolation in the house and the things he finds there lead Damien to reconsider his life and remember things from his past that he hasn't considered for some time. This isn't the deep analysis of self that this might suggest. This book doesn't rwally operate on that level. It is amusing, but won't make you laugh out loud,it has excellent charaterisation, while being dominated by the mystery that is Damien's uncle - a once successful author who wrote one classic then disappeared from view. A book that is well worth reading.

Another Witty and Gentle Tale from Theroux
Theroux follows up his gently charming, and well-received debut, A Stranger in the Earth, with another witty and touching slim novel. As in his first book, the story revolves around a man starting a new life in a new place. Here, Damien March is a thirtysomething American who's lived most of his life in England and now works as a nightshift drone for the BBC. His Uncle Patrick, a prize-winning author turned odd recluse, stuns the family by leaving his New England home and its content to Damien, whom he hasn't seen since he was a child. The home sits on the fictional island of Ionia, a kind of Martha's Vineyardish place off of Cape Cod. The bequest is conditional on Damien living in the house, and so he makes the momentous decision to leave his dead-end life in London and head to America to live in the house for the summer.

As he gets accustomed to island life, his deaf neighbors, and living in a house filled with random bric-a-brac, he also muses on his upbringing, his family history, and the meaning of family in general. Mostly he ponders the question of who his uncle was and why his writings grew increasingly bizarre, why he sequestered himself on the island, and why Damien's father and Uncle Patrick had an odd relationship. These internal musings are interrupted by various odd occurrences, such as the disappearances of some of Uncle Patrick's files, a later burglary, and the general oddities of life on the island. Then, about 2/3 of the way into the book, Damien discovers a manuscript of his uncle's called "The Confession of Mycroft Holmes." It's a pastiche of sorts, based on Sherlock Holmes's enigmatic elder brother. The story itself is faithfully rendered in faux-Victorian prose, and characters in it appear to parallel some on the island. Damien starts to think there's a connection between the story and his uncle's odd life, and the investigation leads to a surprising (to him, if not to the reader) discovery. The book ends rather disappointingly abruptly after this revelation, but is nonetheless extremely enjoyable. Lightly written in a musing tone, and dolloped with sly wit, Theroux's second book makes the reader anxious for more. In a time when accolades are mainly gathered by sprawlingly undisciplined tomes like The Poisonwood Bible and The Blind Assassin, Theroux's slim work proves that yes, sometimes less is more.